


The Sea-Haired Girl's Lonely Dance

by coolant



Category: Baten Kaitos
Genre: Drama, F/M, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2017-11-03 11:51:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/381066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolant/pseuds/coolant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She stood from the sand and began to dance again, twirling and writhing in the ocean air. She felt the godly darkness in her heart return, bit by bit. She would cling to the familiar shadow, the tiny bit of it that felt like home, that felt like sleeping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sea-Haired Girl's Lonely Dance

            Far away from here, there was once a girl who danced alone. Her eyes were the color of blood. She danced with sorrow in her heart that was dead. She danced with fear and she danced with the devil. She danced with gods. And she laughed as she danced and her voice rang like bells through all nine of the heavens.

 

            But as she would soon find, gods are hungry things. Soon a god gobbled her up, swallowing her whole. For a good long while she sat there. She curled up in the heat of hatred and pain, like a babe yet unborn in the belly of a god. She slept like the dead do sleep. The dark of the god’s belly frightened her, but she felt peace there. Something familiar filled her heart and sang her into dreaming.

 

           She slept there until the Raven clawed and cawed and pulled her free. He flew her to the seashore. He dipped her in the sea and washed her clean of the godly bile till her hair became the color of the deepest ocean water. She thanked the Raven and he sat upon her shoulder. Together, they sat in the salty sand and watched the tides roll in.

 

            They sat there until the day when the Raven said he had to leave, to journey across the ocean to the glaciers, to pay homage to the Queen of Ice. Once, I fell and could not fly, he explained, and she nursed me back to health. I am indebted to her, he said, but I will soon return and sit here with you by the sea. The girl who danced did not want her friend to leave, but she sadly bid him farewell and watched the Raven fly away across the ocean. She was alone again.

 

            So then she stood from the sand and began to dance again, twirling and writhing in the ocean air. She felt the godly darkness in her heart return, bit by bit. She would cling to the familiar shadow, the tiny bit of it that felt like home, that felt like sleeping. Only when the Raven returned from beyond the sea would the darkness, for a brief moment, recede.

 

          _“Melodia?”_

 

            “Yes?” The girl turned quickly from the open window with the ocean view to face her grandfather. The old man stood at the doorframe, looking kind and sad.

 

            “You have a visitor, my dear.”

 

            “Thank you, grandfather.” Her red lips smiled. She floated on an ocean breeze from the window and out the door, touching the old man’s shoulder gently to show her thanks. Through the hallway and down the stairs, Melodia saw her guest waiting, surly-faced and travel-worn. With nimble feet she took the steps two at a time. She felt as if she were gliding across the marble floor. She felt her cheeks sting with a smile.

 

            “Kalas.” The man with the deep blue hair noticed her and offered a kind hearted smirk. “So good to see you again!” She did not break her stride and in one fluid sweep embraced him tightly.

 

            “It’s good to see you too, Melodia.” He returned her embrace, though with some awkwardness. Melodia’s heart shrank a little. She released him from her hold, hands floating back to her sides gracefully.

 

            “How is Wazan?” Melodia inquired politely with a mild smile. “Everything is well, I hope?”

 

            “Yeah, everything’s going pretty well.” Kalas nodded. “Xelha’s been under a lot of stress lately, which is why I haven’t been back in a while.” He exhaled heavily, as if channeling the Ice Queen’s stress for a moment. “Anyway, I hope you’ve been taking care of yourself, Melodia.”

 

            “Of course I have.” Melodia responded, not missing a beat. She didn’t even hint that the string of pain snaking around her heart was tightening, that just hearing  _her_  name made her chest feel hallow. “I’ve been eating well, writing, going on walks almost every day-“ She paused, taking his arm and leading him further into the mansion where she would find him something to eat. She savored the feeling of his arm linked with hers, of the way he smelled and the way he moved. She looked up at him and smiled again, red lips and white teeth and pale face alight with joy despite impossibility.

 

            “Oh, and Kalas, I’ve been  _dancing_. I haven’t danced in so long… I’ll have to show you sometime!” She persuaded him to take a stroll with her along the beach before lunch. Through the gilded mansion doors she pulled him to the sand. Mira’s sands were black, fine smooth on the skin. Melodia gleefully abandoned her shoes and Kalas did the same.

 

            “Come, let me show you my dancing!” She took his calloused hand and beckoned him to where the sand was damp with the midday tides. And Melodia laughed, her heart full beauty and of wickedness. She felt a dark veil fall, the black sand sticking between her toes as she danced in the wake of the waves. But with her Raven returned, at least she was not alone.


End file.
